How One Woman’s Passion for Innovation Transformed Industries and Lives!

When you find something that doesn’t quite work the way you think it should, what is your reaction? For some, the natural impulse is to simply accept it and move on. But for others, there is a deep drive to figure out how to improve it and make it more functional. This passion for improving design is what fuels innovation across industries.

Those with an eye for functionality can’t help but analyze the things they encounter in their daily lives. Whether it’s using a kitchen gadget, a computer program, or an electronic device, their minds are mentally redesigning elements to make the experience smoother, more efficient, and better adapted to the user’s needs. Where others might not think twice about an annoyingly placed button or unnecessarily complicated website menu, they immediately start brainstorming better design solutions.

“I always wanted to make a tool or design more functional,” affirms Kristy.

Her inquisitive nature and drive to improve designs and create innovative solutions were sparked at a young age and fostered by a family of engineers, including her father, who was always tinkering and fixing things around the house.

Born with cerebral palsy in a small town in upstate New York, Kristy found herself naturally inclined to look at things differently. ”I was always inspired by how things worked,” she says. ”I’d try multiple ways of using a particular tool, find a different use for it, or sometimes even modify the tool, all just to meet my needs.” This resourcefulness extended to helping others as well.

Kristy discovered a niche in supporting stroke and heart attack victims to re-learn daily tasks and ”tricks” for a world built for the able-bodied. Though left-handed with limited use of her right side, Kristy has defied expectations through versatile problem-solving. ”I hide the limited usage well,” she says. ”This granted me access to many possibilities! I may have been left behind if I didn’t find ways to be inspired to be more than my visible and invisible disabilities.”

She also faced other challenges. She was born with a significant learning disability that made reading, writing, and recognizing letters extremely difficult. Rather than being deterred, she adopted early intervention. “At a very young age, I learned differently. She explained how everything was on tape or read to her, and she found tricks to distinguish between different letters and numbers. 

She still remembers how many use the word ”retarred,” she explained. She doesn’t doubt that she was very odd and maybe unfriendly, as she lived in a different world, but she was certainly not dumb but rather resilient. Her mind never turns off, she declares. She remembers the struggles she went through and the creative navigation strategies she used to get her engineering degree.

Kristy Mandigo has never let barriers stand in her way. Being the CEO of KMK Enterprises LLC, Author, and Chief Engineer at RTX all of which allow her to work across multiple sectors: government, writing, and non-profit.

Her inspirational story showcases how viewing challenges as opportunities can reveal innovations.

Overcoming Obstacles with Determination 

Living in a small town, everyone knew Kristy’s every move, from her doctor’s appointments to her falling down the stairs. The school system was not always kind to her, and she had to fight alongside her parents to get the help she needed to thrive. With a rigorous individual educational plan in place, Kristy was able to excel in math and science, even if she needed assistance in writing and reading.

Despite the laughter and jokes from her peers, adults, teachers, and doctors, she learned to have confidence in her abilities. She knew she was going to make a difference in the world, even if few people believed in her. ”The world would ’want me,’ and I was ’enough,'” she shares.

As she grew older, she discovered her passion for engineering and later realized she wanted to share her story to help others navigate life’s challenges. Being different, she learned, could be empowering.

With the support of her siblings, parents, and grandparents, Kristy was determined to succeed. ”My mom and dad always told me to reach for the stars! They told me I was the only one that’s going to hold me back,” she recalls. She succeeded in earning the Engineering Perseverance Award at Cedarville University.

Struggles to Inspiring Millions 

Her life has been filled with diverse challenges, including her epilepsy and other neurodiverse gaps. She has always been a journalist and dictator of notes, documenting her experiences and lessons learned. A mentor once challenged her to share her story with the world, encouraging her to write a book, start a blog, mentor others, and be open to speaking engagements.

As a Chief Engineer at Raytheon Technologies, has demonstrated the significance of collaboration throughout her career. At RTX, she has observed how various departments unite to embrace change and promote innovation in both government and commercial sectors.

In parallel with her engineering role, she founded KMK-Enterprises LLC, a platform for her personal brand and literary work. Her book, “Ask Why but Not Why Me,” is a collection of personal stories showcasing her resilience and journey. The writing process involved collaboration with others who shared similar experiences.

After publishing her book, Kristy launched a website featuring a blog, videos, and articles that uplift personal growth among readers. She operates social media and external partnerships to promote her message about making informed life choices. Looking forward, she plans to get on a book tour to inspire broader audiences. Her journey reflects the power of collaboration in achieving both personal and professional success.

Journey in the Space and Aerospace Industry 

Driven by a passion for creating novel approaches that challenge the boundaries of science and technology to transform how we connect and safeguard our planet. Kristy started her career with Raytheon in 2003. Her engagement in the daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and her patriotic, and Baptist Church family molded her upbringing, which made her feel proud of her work.

During her interview process, her determination and enthusiasm resonated with the ”Yes, hire me” attitude that ultimately secured her position. Although the road to becoming a chief engineer was long and challenging, the journey has been immensely rewarding for her.

With a strong sense of purpose and an obligation to quality, Kristy’s experience in the aerospace and space industries has shaped the way she approaches engineering. Her connection with groups such as the DAR and the legacy of her family  has given her a profound understanding of the importance of her contributions to scientific growth and national security.

Effective Strategies for Leading Engineering Teams 

As Chief Engineer, Kristy employs several strategies to effectively manage her team on complex engineering projects. She believes that earning her team’s respect and trust is needed, starting with clearly defining expectations for roles and tasks to foster cohesiveness. Recognizing that she can’t be everywhere at once, Kristy prioritizes delegation, allowing her team while instilling excitement about engineering and accentuating the importance of their work to society.

Striving for excellence in all aspects of her role, she views every assignment as both a resume builder and a piece of her heart. This loyalty to quality extends to her collaboration with sub-teams, which she considers vital for success. Through sharing knowledge and helping others discover their passions, Kristy not only teaches valuable skills but also prepares herself for new challenges.

Supported by her family, friends, co-workers, and customers, she is motivated to bring her best every day. Ultimately, her greatest impact comes from witnessing team members learn from her and then teach others, making their success the most rewarding gift she could receive. “It is important to manage your engineering team well and be mindful of the needs of the team,” Kristy suggests. “I try to take serious thought and effort into complex engineering design and infrastructure and adapt as changes arise.”

Steering Work-Life Balance

In the quest for work-life balance, one individual has navigated the challenges of juggling professional and personal duties with remarkable success. Initially prioritizing home life during her children’s early years, she later shifted focus to her career as they gained independence. The support of her husband, who works in the same industry, has been important during this transition.

A key strategy she employs is maintaining a journal to document her work and life aspirations. This practice allows her to reflect on her values, goals, and boundaries, making it easier to adapt to changes. Embracing the ability to pivot has enabled her to recover quickly from setbacks and maintain a positive outlook.

Moreover, she actively tracks her mood and experiences, recognizing when she needs to adjust. Whether it involves seeking new job opportunities or stinging back on unproductive activities, this self-awareness fosters a healthier balance.

Her journey highlights the importance of adaptability and self-reflection in achieving a fulfilling work-life balance, demonstrating that prioritizing passions while nurturing family connections can lead to a thriving personal and professional life.

Combining Digital Tools and Consistency 

Using team digital workspaces and maintaining consistency in all of her work were two of Kristy’s main points. Avoiding repeating the same mistakes repeatedly seemed to fit her personality, she claimed.

Her approach consisted of developing environments that were based on actual operations by designing systems with a single primary source of information. To the extent that teams completely embraced this paradigm and structure, this approach contributed to increased efficiency in engineering and analysis.

However, she admitted that when teams only did it halfway, they were often unsuccessful in avoiding manual labor and duplication of work based on the tech setup. Overall, it is key to strive for a framework that can connect everything and be reused for new products and systems.

To advance her teams toward a fully digital twin representation, Kristy encourages them to compete in the company’s innovation challenge, concentrating mostly on digital engineering and consistency projects. Her strategies underline how important it is to use shared digital spaces, maintain alignment, and welcome new ideas to streamline projects and make them better over time.

A Voice for Content

Kristy believes that everyone has the potential to succeed, regardless of their background or challenges. Kristy’s life story is a powerful story of resilience. Growing up with learning disabilities and facing numerous obstacles, she emphasizes that one’s past does not dictate future success. Her philosophy centres on the idea that personal competition is key: “You’re competing with yourself every day,” she asserts. This perspective persuades readers to focus on self-improvement and personal growth rather than comparing themselves to others.

In her writing and public speaking, Kristy advocates for viewing life’s challenges as opportunities for growth. She helps individuals to reflect on their experiences, learn from them, and move forward. “If something horrible happens, learn from it,” she advises, emphasizing the importance of resilience in the face of adversity. Her message resonates particularly with those who have faced significant hardships, as she believes that everyone can harness their unique skills and talents.

Kristy shows up the significance of choices in shaping one’s life. She acknowledges that while she has faced difficulties, the decisions she made along the way have been pivotal in her journey. “Everything in my life is a reflection of my choices,” she explains. By sharing her story, she hopes to inspire others to make conscious choices that lead to positive outcomes.

Through her role at KMK Enterprises, she is committed to mentoring emerging talents, particularly women in STEM fields. She actively participates in initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion within engineering and technology sectors. Kristy’s allegiance to empowering others is evident in her desire to create a supportive environment where individuals can thrive despite their challenges.

Likewise, her impact as an author at KMK Enterprises is rooted in her personal journey of overcoming adversity. By sharing her insights on resilience, choice, and equality, she hopes to inspire others to recognize their potential and strive for success against all odds.

How Writing Her Book Became a Passion Project 

While writing her book about her childhood, Kristy relived both challenging and joyful moments, which would be read and meant to inspire others to work past adversity and not give up. Additionally, she aimed to encourage readers not to envy others’ circumstances but instead to embrace their own lives. From experience, she acknowledged that this could be a daily struggle. She was born unique, with missing brain matter, limited mobility, and neurological gaps.

However, these challenges motivated them in ways she never expected. She learned that she is wired to redesign and find new ways of living better and more sustainably. Many areas within engineering require out-of-the-box thinking to meet the requirements of customers, end-users, or internal management. She believed she was meant to be an engineer, and while writing her book, she was also planning her next five-year career path.

When Kristy first began writing her book, she worked in systems engineering as an individual contributor. After realizing that empathy was her main area for improvement, she moved into managing individual contributors.

Her mentor assisted her in developing these abilities. She discovered that establishing customized communication plans, encouraging team collaboration, and listening to her team members all helped her team achieve retention and grow her staff.

“Being excited about your work sparks excitement in others,” she exclaimed. She discovered that self-empowerment occurs when one practices servant leadership and empowers others. She subsequently started working on very technical projects and eventually rose to the position of technical lead.

Kristy’s challenges, whether her inability to use her right hand, not being able to drive, experiencing seizures, or struggling with reading and writing, made her stronger because she approached problems from diverse perspectives and solved them using different methods.

Leading a team of diverse individuals in technical aspects rather than being a people manager has been a significant step in her career path, and she credits her grit and perseverance throughout her life to her family, friends, and her own experiences.

Writing her book cemented her goals and showed how her diversity gave her many strengths. She believes that anyone, whether in STEM, baking, writing, athletics, music, medicine, animals, or drama, can find their passion and the reason to work through extreme challenges by reading her book.

Measuring Success

Kristy defines success through personal growth and proactive problem-solving. She points out that success is not merely about meeting externally set goals but rather about striving to become the best version of oneself. Unlike others who may wait for directives, she actively researches solutions and collaborates across engineering areas to boost efficiency and results.

To gauge her effectiveness, Kristy conducts time studies on projects to assess their progress and identify opportunities for automation or improvement. She believes that success varies among individuals and teams, often measured through performance indicators such as cost, schedule, and technical achievements. Understanding the objectives and the needs of stakeholders is essential in determining success.

Kristy advocates for an empowering environment where teams can thrive. She measures team success by analyzing the value they create for programs and customers, utilizing scorecards to track impact, cost savings, and new business opportunities. Her warrant to continuous improvement is evident as she seeks to share her techniques with others, finding fulfillment when her colleagues achieve similar or better results.

Eventually, she views success as a journey—one that involves exploring new heights daily and fostering a culture of empowerment within her teams.

Society of Women Engineers and the PRISM Award

Getting involved with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) while she was in college, Kristy and her fellow female engineering students rallied around each other, finding strength in their shared experiences.

She attended several SWE conferences locally, regionally, and globally. Recently, she was honored to be a keynote speaker at a regional SWE conference after winning the prestigious PRISM award. This award recognized her as an individual who charted her path throughout her career, providing leadership in engineering and technology, as well as other professional organizations.

Reflecting on her journey, she acknowledged that her life and career had been a path less traveled, and it had been a struggle at times. However, she found it to be a rewarding path that eventually led her to her current role as a product chief engineer. Throughout her career, Kristy has continued to embark on new development, production, and sustaining activities.

She has maintained her commitment to mentoring and leading professional organizations such as SWE, the Epilepsy Foundation, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She hopes to become involved in the disability inclusion affinity group, as she knows firsthand how challenging the STEM field can be for everyone, particularly those with disabilities. Despite the stigma, she believes in capitalizing on strengths to overcome weaknesses.

Unquenchable Thirst for Knowledge and Growth 

Despite her impressive qualifications, Kristy’s motivation to continue growing and developing her skills stems from her belief in the importance of staying ahead of ever-changing technology. As an engineer, she recognizes that it is imperative to expand her knowledge on an ongoing basis, whether within the company or through external resources.

Kristy takes advantage of the educational assistance provided by her company, allowing her to progress through her career while continuously broadening her expertise. Her recent achievement of obtaining a project management certificate from Cornell University is a testament to her commitment to lifelong learning. More than just a professional pursuit, her eagerness to learn and grow in her understanding of how the world works is a deeply personal endeavor.

Kristy’s grandmother’s words, ”Be useful,” have left an indelible mark on her outlook on life. She constantly evolves for the better, driven by a sense of purpose and a desire to glorify her Creator, God, for she believes that she would not be here otherwise. Her unquenchable thirst for knowledge and growth stems from her conviction that staying ahead of the curve and continuously expanding her horizons is not only essential for her professional success but also a fundamental part of her life’s purpose.

Insights from Kristy

Kristy stresses the importance of self-awareness and authenticity for aspiring leaders. She believes that individuals must define their identities to prevent others from doing so. Understanding one’s boundaries is basic for effective leadership.

She advocates for recognizing both strengths and weaknesses, encouraging active listening, and refining communication styles to build meaningful relationships. This focus on personal growth augments the ability to motivate and inspire others.

Prayer plays a vital role in Kristy’s approach to relationships. She seeks wisdom and guidance to direct interactions with openness and a willingness to learn, which deepens her faith and reinforces her belief in a unique purpose for everyone.

Kristy acknowledges that life’s challenges can leave people feeling stuck, yet she encourages embracing one’s journey—whether slowing down or metaphorically “running” alongside her. While she may not physically run, her mind is filled with ideas and aspirations.

Further, Kristy’s insights remind us that effective leadership starts with self-knowledge and a commitment to growth. By fostering self-awareness, engaging in prayer, and embracing personal journeys, aspiring leaders can realize their potential and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Here are some key insights that Kristy has learned through their experiences:

• Don’t hold on to knowledge and your tasks too long; teach others your skills to create space for your own development. This practice fosters collaboration and continuous learning.
• Find people that inspire you, as engaging with motivational figures can help break free from stagnant thought processes and encourage innovative thinking.
• Listen to both constructive and nonconstructive criticism, and always express gratitude to critics. Following up to share insights gained from their feedback—whether you agree or disagree, can lead to deeper understanding and stronger relationships.
• Never stop learning and recognize that you are not the smartest person in the room. This humility fosters a desire for continuous improvement and opens doors to new knowledge and perspectives.
• Pick a leadership style that resonates with your values but be adaptable. Embracing change while maintaining consistency in core principles allows you to respond effectively to varying situations.
• Learn to say “no” as it is a critical skill for managing time and priorities. This empowers you to focus on what truly matters, preventing burnout and ensuring energy is directed toward meaningful tasks.

A Loyalty to Values and Growth

Kristy envisions a legacy rooted in inspiration and values, aiming to impact her children, readers, and mentees. She emphasizes the importance of hard work and the need to dismantle barriers that hinder progress, believing that a true legacy is built through consistent action rather than mere words.

Throughout her life, she has dedicated herself to becoming the best version of herself, showcasing her pledge to personal growth as a leader, engineer, author, and innovator. Her active mind is fuelled by her passion for learning, and she often humorously credits caffeine for helping her maintain focus.

Proud of her journey, Kristy sees herself as someone who will persistently pursue her goals. Her determination serves as motivation for those around her, as she shares her knowledge and experiences with family, coworkers, and readers. She lives by the philosophy that life is too short to dwell on setbacks and encourages everyone to be useful every day.

Eventually, Kristy’s legacy is one of inspiration, hard work, and a steadfast promise to personal growth. Through her actions and teachings, she aims to empower others to embrace their potential and contribute meaningfully to the world.